I know I don't post here as much as I used to with the move & vet school - life is just crazy, but I could use your good thoughts for my little man.

Roc is in the hospital over night tonight. This morning he was coughing a ton, but he coughs every once in awhile so I didn't think too much of it and it stopped. He was acting completely normal, ate his breakfast, and then I took him with me to walk to get a package - which is about a 30-40 min walk roundtrip. He was happy go lucky the entire walk and after he seemed fine as well, had some water, and then came upstairs with me to lie on his dog bed and chill while I studied. Well not too long after he was shaking a ton and at first I thought he was cold, so I got him a blanket, but that didn't work so I picked him up and brought him to sit with me. His pulse was racing and he was stretching his neck out funny. And he just seemed out of it. So I called the vet and told them I was on my way in. I had to carry him the entire way there which is normally a 20 min walk for me, but I think it probably took us more like 30 min - as I had to keep adjusting my arms and put him down a few times just to give my arms a break (he is 30 lbs, but gets heavy after awhile).

When we got there the intern was not completely sure what was going on with him as his symptoms did not make much sense and she brought in a resident. It was decided to do bloodwork (in case he ate anything on the walk to rule out toxins) and just a general check and then also chest x-rays because of his cough that had started again and put him on fluids. Well the bloodwork all came back normal, but the chest x-rays showed one lung lobe not functioning at all and some abnormalities in it. Their first diagnosis is aspiration pneumonia, so they are starting him on IV antibiotics and hoping those will help. If the antibiotics do not work then it could be that the abnormalities they are seeing are neoplasia which would most likely mean cancer.

So he is there overnight and could use all the positive thoughts in the world really. I am a mess right now on the inside as I really cannot lose him. And he does not do well away from me, so I am extremely worried about that as well - the vet knows and is supposed to call me if he starts freaking out, but as of the last time I talked to her he was calm - I guess cause he feels like crap. Which of course then worries me even more.

Oh no - I know what you mean about carrying weight over distance like that... poor lil guy. Darn.... I;m going to focus on the lesser of the evils and hope it's just pneumonia. He is a special lil dude and I know how connected you 2 are.... Keeping you both in my thoughts!

He improved a tiny bit overnight, but they decided to keep him another night as they wanted more time for him on IV antibiotics. They will reevaluate tomorrow and see if I can take him home on oral antibiotics. He is weak and sleeping a lot, but eating small canned food meatballs. They are nebulizing him to help clear his airways and break up the mucus in his lungs. And the vet said his cough was better today. As long as the antibiotics work and clear it then it is aspiration pneumonia. They are not sure what would have caused it, but he eats his food so darn fast (inhales it) that that could be a possibility. I have to feed him such small portions of food at a time and he still sometimes chokes. In 2 weeks they would do a recheck x-ray to see how his lungs and esophagus look - to look for signs of mega-esophagus and perhaps even then test for myasthenia gravis. I am just hoping he improves and it is not cancer.